Evidence of Armstrong doping 'overwhelming,' agency says

By Michael Pearson, CNN

Updated 9:57 PM ET, Wed October 10, 2012

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – After denying the allegations for years, cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. As a result, he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and an Olympic bronze medal. Click through the gallery for a look at his life and career.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong, 17, competes in the Jeep Triathlon Grand Prix in 1988. He became a professional triathlete at age 16 and joined the U.S. National Cycling Team two years later.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong wins the 18th stage of the Tour de France in 1995. He finished the race for the first time that year, ending in 36th place.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong rides at the Ikon Ride for the Roses to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation in May 1998. He established the foundation to benefit cancer research after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996. After treatment, he was declared cancer-free in February 1997.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong leads his teammates during the final stage of the 1999 Tour de France.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong takes his honor lap on the Champs-Élysées in Paris after winning the Tour de France for the first time in 1999.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – After winning the 2000 Tour de France, Armstrong holds his son Luke on his shoulders.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong rides during the 18th stage of the 2001 Tour de France. He won the tour that year for the third consecutive time.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong celebrates winning the 10th stage of the Tour de France in 2001.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – After winning the 2001 Tour de France, Armstrong presents President George W. Bush with a U.S. Postal Service yellow jersey and a replica of the bike he used to win the race.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong celebrates on the podium after winning the Tour de France by 61 seconds in 2003.

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – After his sixth consecutive Tour de France win, Armstrong attends a celebration in his honor in front of the Texas State Capitol in Austin.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong arrives at the 2005 American Music Awards in Los Angeles with then-fiancee Sheryl Crow. The couple never made it down the aisle, splitting up the following year.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong holds up a paper displaying the number seven at the start of the Tour de France in 2005. He went on to win his seventh consecutive Tour de France.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong testifies during a Senate hearing in 2008 on Capitol Hill. The hearing focused on finding a cure for cancer in the 21st century.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – In 2009, Armstrong suffered a broken collarbone after falling during a race in Spain.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Young Armstrong fans write messages on the ground ahead of the 2009 Tour de France. He came in third place that year.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong launches the three-day Livestrong Global Cancer Summit in 2009 in Dublin, Ireland. The event was organized by his foundation.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – In May 2010, Armstrong crashes during the Amgen Tour of California. That same day, he denied allegations of doping made by former teammate Floyd Landis.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong looks back as he rides during the 2010 Tour de France.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong's son Luke; his twin daughters, Isabelle and Grace; and his 1-year-old son, Max, stand outside the Radio Shack team bus on a rest day during the 2010 Tour de France.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong finished 23rd in the 2010 Tour de France. He announced his retirement from the world of professional cycling in February 2011. He said he wanted to devote more time to his family and the fight against cancer.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – The frame of Armstrong's bike is engraved with the names of his four children at the time and the Spanish word for five, "cinco." His fifth child, Olivia, was born in October 2010.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong competes in the 70.3 Ironman Triathlon in Panama City, Florida, in February 2012. He went on to claim two Half Ironman triathlon titles by June of that year.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong addresses participants at the Livestrong Challenge Ride on October 21, 2012, days after he stepped down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer charity.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid announces the decision to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France wins and ban him from the tournament for life on October 22, 2012. "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling," he said.

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Photos:Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – In January 2013, Armstrong speaks with Oprah Winfrey about the controversy surrounding his cycling career. He admitted, unequivocally and for the first time, that he used performance-enhancing drugs while competing.

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Story highlights

Armstrong's lawyer says witnesses should have been cross examined

Armstrong has long denied using performance-enhancing drugs

Former teammate testified Armstrong use a drug called EPO, report says

Other teammates said they were shown how to avoid positive drug tests

Cyclist Lance Armstrong was part of "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen," the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday in releasing more than 1,000 pages of evidence in the case.

The evidence involving the U.S. Postal Service-sponsored cycling team encompasses "direct documentary evidence including financial payments, e-mails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong," the agency said.

Armstrong lawyer Tim Herman dismissed what he called a "one-sided hatchet job" and a "government-funded witch hunt" against the seven-time Tour de France winner, who has consistently denied doping accusations.

But the USADA said 11 riders came forward to acknowledge their use of banned performance-enhancing drugs while on the team. Among them is George Hincapie, Armstrong's close teammate during his winning Tour de France runs.

"I'm not suggesting that they are all lying, but I am suggesting that each witness needs to have confrontation and cross examination to test the accuracy of their recollection," Herman said.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam champion and the world's highest-paid female athlete, admitted that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open in January. She tested positive for meldonium, a recently banned substance that she said she had taken since 2006 for health issues. She will be provisionally banned by the International Tennis Federation on March 12. Click through the gallery to see other athletes accused of using drugs to boost their careers.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

In February, New York Mets pitcher Jenrry Mejia became the first player to be permanently suspended by Major League Baseball after he tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance. MLB said Mejia tested positive for boldenone, an anabolic steroid that athletes use to increase muscle mass.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs in a meeting with the Drug Enforcement Administration in January 2014. Rodriguez told DEA investigators that he had used banned substances, including testosterone cream, testosterone gummies, and human growth hormone, between late 2010 and October 2012. He was suspended for the entire 2014 season.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay was banned for one year after he tested positive for a prohibited anabolic steroid in 2013. The four-time U.S. champion in the 100 meters received a reduced punishment from the two-year suspension standard for cooperating with authorities. The 4x100 relay team he was on was stripped of the silver medal it won in the 2012 Olympics. Gay returned to racing in 2014.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs in 2011, the year he was National League MVP. He said he took a cream and a lozenge with banned substances while recovering from an injury.

Mixed martial arts fighter Alistair Overeem failed a random drug test in 2012 and admitted to injecting himself with a substance that contained testosterone, prescribed for a rib injury. He was suspended for nine months.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Barry Bonds, baseball's all-time home run leader, was convicted of an obstruction charge in 2011 after he impeded a grand jury investigating the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds had testified that he thought his personal trainer was giving him arthritis balm and flaxseed oil, not steroids or testosterone.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing was suspended for four games after testing positive for a drug called human chorionic gonadotropin in 2010.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Cyclist Floyd Landis admitted in 2010 to using performance-enhancing drugs for most of his career. Landis used the red-blood-cell booster erythropoietin, known as EPO, along with testosterone, human growth hormone and frequent blood transfusions. He was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France win and suspended from cycling for two years.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

In 2008, Olympic track star Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison for lying to federal prosecutors investigating the use of performance-enhancing substances.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Former New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Charles Grant tested positive for banned substances in 2008 and was suspended for the rest of the season.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Retired New Orleans Saints running back Deuce McAllister tested positive for a banned diuretic in 2008.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Shawne Merriman, then of the San Diego Chargers, was suspended for four games after testing positive for steroids in 2006. He retired in 2013 after eight NFL seasons.

Home-run hitter Sammy Sosa was among the players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to the New York Times.

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Photos:Athletes and doping in the era of PEDs

Former NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski appeared on "60 Minutes" in 2005 and admitted to using steroids and human growth hormone during his career.

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The USADA is sending its "reasoned decision" to the international governing body of cycling, the Union Cycliste Internationale, as well as the World Anti-Doping Agency and the World Triathlon Corporation, which runs Ironman competitions.

In the past, Armstrong argued that he has taken more than 500 drug tests and never failed. In its 202-page report, the USADA said it had tested Armstrong less than 60 times and the UCI conducted about 215 tests.

"Thus the number of actual controls on Mr. Armstrong over the years appears to have been considerably fewer than the number claimed by Armstrong and his lawyers," the USADA said.

The agency didn't say that Armstrong ever failed one of those tests, only that his former teammates testified as to how they beat tests or avoided the test administrators altogether. Several riders also said team officials seemed to know when random drug tests were coming, the report said.

The agency also said it had a professor compare Armstrong's red cell and plasma levels from blood samples taken late in his career, and they showed levels that wouldn't be expected of an athlete competing in a three-week endurance event like the Tour de France.

Hincapie publicly admitted for the first time Wednesday that he took drugs.

"Early in my professional career, it became clear to me that, given the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs by cyclists at the top of the profession, it was not possible to compete at the highest level without them," Hincapie said in a written statement. "I deeply regret that choice and sincerely apologize to my family, teammates and fans."

Hincapie testified, the report said, that he was aware of Armstrong's use of the drug EPO, or erythropoietin, which boosts the number of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the muscles, and his use of blood transfusions.

He also testified Armstrong dropped out of a race in 2000 to avoid a positive drug test, according to the report, which was accompanied by hundred of pages of supporting documents like Hincapie's 16-page affidavit.

Three members of the Postal Service team, which changed sponsors in 2005, will contest the accusations, the agency said. They are team director Johan Bruyneel, team doctor Pedro Celaya and team trainer Jose "Pepe" Marti. Each will get a hearing before an independent judge, according to the agency.

The agency compiled the evidence as part of its investigation into doping allegations that have dogged Armstrong and the Postal Service team for years. The organization is not a governmental agency but is designated by Congress as the country's official anti-doping organization for Olympic sports.

In August, four days after a federal judge dismissed Armstrong's lawsuit seeking to block the agency's investigation, Armstrong announced he would no longer fight the accusations. The agency then announced it would ban Armstrong from the sport for life and strip him of his results dating from 1998.

"When Mr. Armstrong refused to confront the evidence against him in a hearing before neutral arbitrators, he confirmed the judgment that the era in professional cycling which he dominated as the patron of the peloton was the dirtiest ever," the USADA writes in its decision. "Peloton" refers to the main group of riders in a bike race.

The agency praised the 11 riders who came forward to document the widespread use of banned substances by the team. But in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, attorney Herman called the expected USADA report "a taxpayer-funded tabloid piece rehashing old, disproved, unreliable allegations, based largely on axe-grinders, serial perjurers, coerced testimony, sweetheart deals and threat-induced stories."

The agency said those riders would receive various punishments, including suspensions and disqualifications.

The scope of evidence against the team is "overwhelming," according to the agency.

"The USPS Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices," the agency said.

Armstrong became a household name not only in Europe, where cycling is wildly popular, but also in the United States, where the sport traditionally attracted little attention before he embarked on a remarkable stretch between 1999 and 2005 and won seven consecutive Tour de France titles. Persistent accusations that he used performance-enhancing drugs grew as he won more Tours.

Author and cycling journalist Bill Strickland compared the case to baseball's "Black Sox" scandal, when eight Chicago White Sox players conspired with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series. But he said Armstrong is "not interested in ever admitting to his guilt, and he just wants to move on right now."

"Despite this evidence and despite all the evidence that has come out, he's got a strong core of people who believe in him and will always believe in him because of his link to fighting cancer," said Strickland, who chronicled Armstrong's 2009 return to the Tour de France in a 2011 book.

"Certainly, he's not going to be able to move on within the sport," Strickland told CNN. "It seems likely that all of his Tour victories will be stripped. He won't be allowed to participate in any sports that are signatories of WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency. But he's found a few triathlons to do in the meantime."

And he said the allegations could lead to the reopening of a criminal case against Armstrong that federal prosecutors closed without charges in February.

"What's next is years and years of fighting if the criminal case is reopened," Strickland said.

The USADA opened its own case, which does not carry criminal penalties, in June.